great reads!

i just finished 2 books that i could barely put down: georgiana, duchess of devonshire and a children's edition of king arthur's tales. both were FANTASTIC!

i highly recommend anyone interested in biographies to read georgiana. lady georgiana cavendish was the duchess of devonshire from 1774 until her death in 1806. her marriage to the duke of devonshire was (by modern accounts) a disaster. but in her day, she was a leader of fashion, a lover of politics, a published writer, and what we might call a "proto-feminist." the most fascinating part of this book is the "menage a trois" that governs most of georgiana's life, but i won't spoil anything for you here.

if you're not into reading the book, the movie the duchess from 2008 which starred keira knightley is loosely based upon her life and upon this book. warning: plenty of poetic license was taken. however, the book is considered one of the foremost biographies on the duchess. it would make a great bookclub read!

(that's a hint for any of your georgia ladies, i.e. jessica, that might be reading--wink, wink!)



the other book i read is a children's edition of the stories of king arthur by roger lancelyn green. it was purely delightful. i have never read any king arthur. people were asking me what i've been reading lately (i'm a librarian, after all), and when i told them i was reading king arthur they all groaned and said it sounded like homework! i'm shocked! perhaps a more "grown up" reading would be a little difficult--i imagine the stories studded with plenty of thees and thous and archaic sentence constructions... but this one was a wonderful page turner and a great classic edition (possibly done in the 1930s?). again, i completely recommend it to anyone who might be interested in the stories but thinks they don't have time for such heavy literature.

and i, for one, will be renting BOTH disney's the sword in the stone (one of my childhood favorites) and monty python's quest for the holy grail--one of my all-time favorites!



and for those of you who might not be familiar with this one:



p.s.--i hope to have some more food pictures and whatnot up soon, but we're in the middle of closing on a condo, planning a move, and going on vacation, so... maybe it will and maybe it won't happen!